Thursday, March 14, 2013
– Looking Back at Savannah
We’re en route to
Alexandria, and with eleven hours on this train, I finally have a chance to
catch up on my Savannah report. Visually,
the city’s historic area is a delight, especially at this time of year with the
trees and flowers in bloom. Dogwoods and
redbuds, palms and live oaks dripping with Spanish moss, azaleas and daffodils
bring color to every street corner. The
squares (there are twenty four of them, all different) provide perfect spots to
sit on a bench and soak in the natural beauty.
On our first day here,
we took a 90-minute guided tour to get an overview of the area and a sense of
its history. The last of the thirteen
original colonies, Georgia traces its beginnings to the arrival of James
Oglethorpe in Savannah in 1733. The
English were eager to establish a settlement here to provide a buffer between
the English colonies to the north and the Spanish in Florida. Oglethorpe’s statue stands in Chippewa Square,
looking south to guard against any incursion by Spain.
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| Statue of James Oglethorpe |
Located on the Savannah
River, Savannah was a major port in the antebellum (I’ve always wanted to use
that word) period. Before cotton was
king, indigo and rice were major exports of the region. As cotton production increased, Savannah’s
wealth grew. Along with Liverpool, it
was one of only two cities in the world where cotton prices were quoted. The buildings along the river originally used
as offices for cotton factors (brokers) and warehouses for the cotton are today
used as restaurants, shops, and hotels. However,
Savannah remains one of the busiest container ports in the country.
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| Factors' Walk on Bay Street |
Historic preservation
wasn’t always the rule in Savannah. In
fact, many of the 18th and 19th century buildings in the
historic area were routinely being torn down to make way for parking garages
until the mid-1960s when a group of local women decided to raise money to buy
endangered buildings. Fortunately, the
city soon realized that the older buildings were an irreplaceable treasure and
they are now protected.
As we walked around the
city on our own, we visited several of the squares and the adjacent streets, which
are lined with buildings in a variety of architectural styles. For example, the Mercer-Williams House,
located on Monterey Square and featured in Midnight in the Garden of
Good and Evil, is Italianate. On Columbia Square, the Davenport House, whose
interior I toured, is a Federal style mansion dating back to the 1820s. It was fascinating to see the period
furnishings, especially the trompe l’oeil wallpaper imported from France.
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| Mercer-Williams House on Monterey Square |
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| Davenport House |
And here’s a nugget of
local history that I learned on the Davenport House tour: Madeira was the drink of choice for the
upper-class citizens of Savannah. After
dinner, the women would adjourn to the salon leaving the men to sip Madeira
along with almonds and a buttery cake called Madeira cake. Now I understand the origins of the recipe
for Madeira cake that I obtained from a British friend when we lived in
Fayence.
One highlight of our
Savannah explorations was a visit to Mickve Israel, the third oldest Jewish
congregation in the United States.
Jewish settlers, primarily Portuguese Jews fleeing the Inquisition,
arrived in Savannah back in 1733. Oglethorpe
gave them a warm welcome because a medical doctor was included in their party,
and the colony’s doctor had recently died.
He granted them freedom to practice their religion at a time when
Catholics (and lawyers!) were forbidden to settle in the colony. The Torah they brought with them was
inscribed on deerskin, most likely in Morocco, in the mid-1400s. Today, that Torah is on display in Mickve
Israel’s museum. The synagogue building
is unusual because of its cruciform layout, necessitated by the shape of the
plot of land the Jewish community received for this purpose.
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| In the sanctuary of Mickve Israel |
Voodoo, with its roots
in Africa and the Caribbean, is also part of the Savannah cultural tradition. The old Pirates’ House has shutters and doors
painted a distinctive blue-green color called “haint green,” haint being the
voodoo word for haunted or ghost.
According to voodoo belief, ghosts are afraid to cross the sea. Painting a house the same color as the sea
would keep the ghosts away.
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| Notice the "haint green" door on the Pirates' House |
Of course, there was lots
more to see – Bay Street with the red brick Cotton Exchange and gold-domed City
Hall, SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) buildings everywhere, and the busy
harbor, which we viewed during a 30-minute ride on the free Savannah Belle
ferry. And there was time for shopping
and eating, too. I passed up the
opportunity to stock up on green T-shirts and other St. Patrick’s Day
accouterments but I couldn’t resist Byrd’s famous cookies. The Byrd family has been producing these for
over 90 years, and I bought several packages at their City Market store. Where else could I get cookies flavored with
Georgia peach and key lime?
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| The Cotton Exchange |
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| The free Savannah Belles ferry |
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| City Hall |
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| Shopping for cookies at Byrd's |
I made two visits to
another local institution, Leopold’s Ice Cream Parlor, which has been in
business since the 1920s. Their
chocolate with raspberry swirl (a purée of fresh raspberries) was oh, so
good. The 1920s must have been a fun time
to live in Savannah. There are several
ornately decorated theaters that date back to that decade. Walking down Broughton Street, the main
shopping street, is a bit like being in a time warp.
We managed to eat well
and healthfully, and we even sampled Southern cuisine without paying a visit to
Paula Deen’s restaurant. At the Café at
City Market, we indulged in Savannah style crabcakes (Elliott, the crabcake
connoisseur, was favorably impressed) along with collard greens and hoppin’
John. Also in City Market, the
spectacular pizza at Vinnie a GoGo’s was worth a couple of visits. The slices were gargantuan, the crust was
thin and crispy, and the wine ($4 for about 8 ounces and still drinkable) was
served in a plastic cup. Gryphon Tea
Room, in the old Scottish Rite temple adorned with Tiffany-style glass, was the
setting for Tuesday’s lunch. We also had
lunch one day at a new vegetarian restaurant called VegHeads.
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| Dinner at Vinnie a GoGo's |
Our finest meal was a
dinner at The Olde Pink House on Reynolds Square. I could easily have become addicted to their
buttery, flaky biscuits and moist, flavorful corn muffins. For a main course, Elliott had a chicken pot
pie and I ordered a couple of cornmeal crusted fried oysters and fried green
tomatoes to accompany a delicious entrée of ravioli filled with caramelized
Vidalia onions and sweet potato, served with a creamy oyster mushroom sauce and
garnished with pecans. We shared a trio
of fresh fruit sorbets for dessert, and I sipped a glass of sublimely rich and
smooth Savannah Madeira to cap off the evening.
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| The Olde Pink House |
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| Pre-dinner photo op at The Olde Pink House |
I guess you could say I’ve
fallen under the spell of Savannah’s seductive charm. Without a doubt, this gracious southern city
provided everything we were hoping for on this trip.
